Def Leppard’s Phil Collen Reflects on 30 Years of 'Hysteria' on 'No Guitar Is Safe' Podcast

Listen to Phil Collen reflect on how Def Leppard and legendary producer John “Mutt” Lange mixed hard rock with countless “outside the box” musical elements to create one of the biggest selling, most genre-bending rock albums of all time, 'Hysteria.'

“Anyone who’s massively successful doesn’t stay in a box,” says Phil Collen on Episode 56 of the No Guitar Is Safe podcast.

Presented by FU-Tone, this hour-plus interview finds Collen reflecting on how Def Leppard and legendary producer John “Mutt” Lange mixed hard rock with countless “outside the box” musical elements from other styles to create one of the biggest selling, most genre-bending rock albums of all time, Hysteria.

Having released the album exactly three decades ago, Def Leppard have just put out a new remastered 30th-anniversary version of Hysteria in single-disc, multi-disc and box-set formats.

And on this podcast, Collen cranks up his signature-model, FU-Tone-modified Jackson PC1 throughout, demonstrating many of the album’s famous guitar riffs, solos, and textures, and explaining how they were written and recorded. (No Guitar Is Safe host Jude Gold chimes in with rhythm guitar parts, when necessary, to fill things out.)

“With Hysteria, we always said we wanted to create Star Wars for the ears,” says Collen. “And when we set out to do the album, Mutt said, ‘Let’s make a record we’re still talking about in 20 years.’

Well, it’s been 30 years, and we’re still talking about it!” To hear the complete interview/jam with Phil Collen, stream or download No Guitar Is Safe, Episode 56, on iTunes, Soundcloud, your smartphone’s Podcasts app, or wherever you get your podcasts.